Gov. Jennifer Granholm last week finished a tour of Michigan colleges, trying to rally support for restoring a $1,000-a-year state scholarship. "It's not too late to save the Michigan Promise," Granholm told students at Eastern Michigan University, according to AnntArbor.com.

We disagree. It is too late. Michigan's college students are nearly a full semester into the school year, and the noxious partisan fog in Lansing leaves little expectation that students will get the money they expected.

This is the wrong priority. What Michigan needs is a real road map to make college more affordable.

More broadly, it is worth asking whether Granholm is fighting the right battle. The governor (about to enter her last year in office) clearly wants to leave a legacy of providing for higher education, but salvaging the Michigan Promise is not the right way to do it.

When it comes to the cost of a college education, Michigan needs a better strategy.

Of course, this scholarship has value. A payment of $1,000 helps with costs, particularly for students who don't qualify for federal aid and otherwise rely on loans.

Now, put that in perspective. A student attending Michigan State University this year will pay at least $10,669 in tuition and fees if he or she takes 30 credits, plus at least another $7,394 for on-campus housing.

Grand total: $18,063. The school's 5.2 percent tuition hike alone cost that student $510, or more than half of the Promise scholarship.

Does anyone think the Michigan Promise makes the difference whether this state's residents receive a college degree? It clearly does not. Yet Granholm's insistence on fighting for it draws attention from the real issue.

The problem is that Michigan's public colleges are becoming less and less affordable for residents. Every school — from the University of Michigan to Jackson Community College — has raised student costs enormously this decade.

Five years ago, a commission led by Lt. Gov. John Cherry promoted ideas to help more Michigan residents earn college degrees. Disappointingly, it said little about the issue of cost. Since then, two strategies have competed, with no real resolution from lawmakers or the governor.

One approach is to put more money in students' hands. The most extreme example is a proposal from state Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith (a candidate for governor) to raise income taxes and guarantee essentially a free education at every public university.

The other is to force colleges to tighten their belts. MSU President Lou Anna Simon, for one, has offered to cut her university's spending by 10 percent over the next two years. Other universities point to cost cutting.

We cast our vote for the latter. The Legislature can and should demand that taxpayer-funded colleges make do with less, or reward those that are trimming fat. By doing that, they can keep tuition in check.

Still, the real concern for Michigan is that there is no game plan, no clear approach on how taxpayer-backed colleges can offer an education at the right price.

Yes, Michigan "promised" this scholarship to its college students. However, the state has fallen on lean times financially and cannot pay the bill. The prudent choice is to eliminate the scholarship.